This article trumpets the 11+% increase in median home sale price suggesting he agrees with NAR economist.MP: More evidence from today’s report on existing home sales and median prices that “we’re experiencing a genuine recovery” in the U.S. housing market, as NAR economist Lawrence Yun commented in the organization’s press release.

Officially, there are 3.5 million homes for sale nationwide. But there are millions more lurking in the shadows — hidden neatly away on banks' balance sheets, stalled in foreclosure court proceedings or simply occupied by nonpaying owners as lenders wait months or years before taking action.

The housing market's ballooning shadow inventory — buoyed by a yearlong foreclosure slowdown — stands as the most menacing obstacle to the recovery of the residential real estate market.

In Miami, for example, there are about 200,000 shadow homes, dwarfing the 30,000 properties that are listed on the active market. Even as prices in Miami have shown signs of stability this year, an impending wave of foreclosures threatens to keep real estate values deflated.

"A lot of people don't understand how much inventory is set to come on line in the next 18 to 24 months," said Jack McCabe, the CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

Banks are acting prudently in easing the number of inventory into the market to sustain pricing. Be it appears to me that we are at least a year from recovery of the residential housing market. IMHO more like 3 years.

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